By Lezli Baskerville, Esq.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - At 5:00 a.m. and, careful not to wake her daughter and two sleeping grandsons, Helen gets dressed for the morning shift at a DC hotel kitchen.

"My supervisor is a kid. I hate it, but this job is all that's keeping us from moving back to the shelter," Helen told me, adding that, if they get lucky, her daughter Erika might earn a little extra, braiding hair in between caring for the boys and applying for work.

Helen once had high hopes that Erika, her youngest child, would become the first college graduate in the family.

But with the burden of more than $20,000 in defaulted student loan debt and fees, the prospects that her daughter will ever return to finish her degree are bleak.

It's the story of Helen's family, and millions more like her.

The constricting economic burdens created by excessive student loan debt, not only prevents young people from building wealth, it spirals outward in concentric circles ensnaring parents, children, grandchildren, strangling the economic growth of entire communities.

Student loan debt now exceeds $1 trillion, and not surprisingly, African-Americans and other underserved minority students are disproportionately affected.

According to the Center for American Progress, 81 percent of African-Americans borrow money at higher interest rates than their peers, which creates greater financial vulnerability. More than 13 percent of students whose loans came due in 2009 defaulted within three years for non-payment, a situation exacerbated by high unemployment, a struggling economy, and the effects of the Great Recession.

We need to shift the paradigm in a way that fundamentally uproots the assumptions underlying low-income students and public higher education funding. What if institutions which serve disproportionate percentages of low-income, first generation traditionally underrepresented students were funded based upon the socio-economic and demographic profile of the students and size of the institution's endowment? The higher the percentage of lower income students enrolled and persisting in an institution, the higher its federal funding level. The national goal is, after all, moving more of the growing populations to college completion.

What if conflicting public policies were eliminated? For example, the cost of incarceration is $26,000 yearly per inmate. The tuition rates at the historically Black Morgan State University are $17,000 and $25,000 respectively for in-state and out-of-state students, and represent positive cash flow to the state. Across the spectrum, the cost of attaining a degree at a public HBCU is $2,500 less per year than at a public HWCU, and $10,000 less per year at a private HBCU than a private HWCU, according to The College Board.

If we are to meet President Obama's national goal of graduating 60 percent of Americans with a two or four-year degree by 2020, an estimated two million additional African-American students must be educated. Historically Black Colleges and Universities will need to increase the number of graduates per year from 35,000 to more than 57,000.

This will not happen without a major overhaul of the student financial aid system.

We must reform the Pell Grant program to require notification of likely Pell Grant eligibility to middle school student families participating in needs-based federal programs e.g., free/reduced lunch. This will incentivize low-income students to believe that college is possible.

We must devise an automatic income-based repayment (IBR) plan for student loans by which borrowers can make payments through employer withholding. If a student were unemployed, there would be no obligation to pay. If a student loan borrower must file for bankruptcy the code should be changed back to permitting privately issued student loans to be dischargeable in bankruptcy like nearly all other forms of private debt.

We must cap student and parent loan interest rates on subsidized Stafford Student Loans, Parent Plus Loans, and other government education loans at no more than 2 or 3 percent to remove the twin obstacles of high interest rates and prohibitive student debt. This will assist 7.4 million student and parent borrowers.

We must incentivize governors, state legislatures, and municipalities to establish Promise Communities in which endowments would be established and funded by a percentage of the regular expenditures of residents e.g., utility and grocery bills. The endowment would fund the cost of a four-year public education for qualifying low-income students. This concept has achieved successful outcomes in several states.

A bold agenda? Absolutely. If the lessons of the 1960s teach us anything, it is that real progress is not built on cautious compromises. We must begin a movement on behalf of black and brown, low-income, first generation students.

The components of the movement are there. It begins with an action agenda to educate our children from pre-school upward.

That's the kind of movement that the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) is ready to lead. That's the bold agenda that Helen's family and other families in America desperately need now.

Lezli Baskerville, Esq. is president/CEO of the NAFEO. This article - the nineteenth of a 20-part series - is written in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, of which Congressman Lewis is grand marshal. The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today. For more information, please visit www.lawyerscommittee.org.

July 8, 2013

Study Warns of New Housing Discrimination Against Blacks, Latinos and Asians
By Hazel Trice Edney

Row Houses

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Blatant acts of housing discrimination have declined in the U. S., but a national study shows that prospective landlords, real estate agents and rental housing providers have found a new way to keep their racism under the radar.

The study of 28 cities, conducted by The Urban Institute and released last month by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, reports that while Blacks, Asians and Latinos are no longer blatantly denied housing by being told it is unavailable, discriminators now simply show them fewer units than Whites are shown.

“Real estate agents and rental housing providers recommend and show fewer available homes and apartments to minority families, thereby increasing their costs and restricting their housing options. The study concludes this is a national, not a regional, phenomenon,” states a HUD description of the study results.

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibits discrimination in housing based on race. But, the study, titled Housing Discrimination Against Racial and Ethnic Minorities 2012, outlines how housing providers attempt to get around the law by sneakily omitting certain units while apparently showing Blacks and other minorities what they want them to see.

“Black, Hispanic, and Asian renters are all told about fewer housing units than equally qualified white renters,” says the Executive Summary of the study. “Black renters who contact agents about recently advertised housing units learn about 11.4 percent fewer available units than equally qualified whites and are shown 4.2 percent fewer units. Hispanic renters learn about 12.5 percent fewer available units than equally qualified whites and are shown 7.5 percent fewer units. Asian renters learn about 9.8 percent fewer available units than equally qualified whites and are shown 6.6 percent fewer units.”

Other than the reduced numbers of units shown, the study reports that ethnic minority renters also experience other less consistent forms of discriminatory treatment. They relate to “housing costs and quality and the helpfulness of the rental agent.”

Racial minorities seeking homes to buy receive the same discriminatory treatment, the study shows.

“Like renters, minority homebuyers are rarely denied appointments that their white counterparts are able to make,” the study reports. “However, black homebuyers are slightly more likely than equally qualified whites to be denied an in-person appointment.”

Among the 28 cities sampled in the study were: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia, New York, Seattle, Newark, N.J., Greensboro and Winston-Salem, N.C.; Columbia, S.C., Kansas City, Mo., Richmond, Va., and Washington, D.C.

“Fewer minorities today may be getting the door slammed in their faces, but we continue to see evidence of housing discrimination that can limit a family’s housing, economic and educational opportunities,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan in a statement. “It’s clear we still have work to do to end housing discrimination once and for all.”

The Urban Institute’s Margery Turner, one of six preparers of the study, observes the stealth nature of the discrimination: “The forms of discrimination documented by this study are very difficult for victims to detect,” she said in a statement. “To detect housing discrimination today, HUD and local fair housing organizations need to conduct proactive testing, especially in the sales market, where discrimination appears higher than in the rental market.”

Despite the clear findings of the new type of discrimination, the study indicates more research is needed in order to pinpoint the causes and effects of the discrimination as well as the neighborhood segregation that apparently result.

“As attitudes and market practices evolve, policymakers and fair housing practitioners need reliable research not only on patterns of discrimination, but also on other factors that may contribute to residential segregation and disparities in neighborhood quality,” concludes the executive summary. “Minorities still suffer from substantial disparities in neighborhood amenities and access to opportunity and the levels and forms of housing discrimination captured by this paired-testing study cannot fully explain current levels of residential segregation.”

It continues, “Information gaps, stereotypes and fears, local regulatory policies, and disparities in purchasing power all work together to perpetuate segregation, even though many Americans—minority and white—say they want to live in more diverse neighborhoods.”

Pending more research, the following are among the final observations and recommendations given in the study:

• “Meaningful reductions in neighborhood segregation and inequality can only be achieved if we tackle all these causal forces at the same time.”
• “Enforcing existing fair housing protections remains essential. However, fair housing enforcement alone cannot reverse persistent patterns of segregation or undo the damage they cause.”
• “The evidence argues for a multipronged strategy that includes vigorous enforcement of anti-discrimination protections along with education.
• Education should pertain to “the availability and desirability of diverse neighborhoods; local regulatory reforms and affordable housing development.”
• The goal must be “to open up exclusive communities and preserve affordable options in gentrifying neighborhoods” and to provide “neighborhood reinvestment—to equalize the quality of services, resources, and amenities in minority neighborhoods.”
• “New incentives” are needed “to encourage and nurture stable diversity.”

The study concludes, “All these elements are required to achieve the fundamental goals of free and fair housing choice and healthy, opportunity-rich neighborhoods.”

HUD Acting Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Bryan Greene says the study’s results represents, “a glass that’s half full.”

He said, “While discrimination may not be as obvious as it was in the 1960s, the study reminds us that we still aren’t living up to the principles upon which this nation was founded,” said “HUD is committed to ensuring that every American has equal access to housing opportunities.”

 

July 7, 2013

For Many Black Men, Shaving is an Ordeal
By Frederick Lowe

Gregory Cooper's barber shaves his beard with hair clippers so Cooper can avoid razor bumps.

Richard Lewis sometimes shaves with a blade or razor, following elaborate preparations.

Man with razor bumps, which can discolor and disfigure the face

Dr. Charles E. Crutchfield, an Eagan, Minn., dermatologist, treats black men with razor bumps.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from TheNorthStarNews.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Gregory Cooper, a slender 26-year-old, sometimes wears a scraggly beard that detracts from his good looks because he can’t shave every day.

When he does shave with a blade, his face becomes inflamed with razor bumps caused by his naturally curly hair becoming imbedded in his face.

“Eight hours after shaving with a razor blade, my face breaks out in whiteheads,” he says.

Whiteheads are a form of acne filled with sebum and discarded skin cells that are capped and white in appearance.

Twice, his razor bumps became so severe that he was taken to a hospital emergency room because his lips had become infected and swollen.

“I let my beard grow out rather than messing up my face," Cooper explains. Instead of shaving himself, he lets his barber do the job with hair clippers, not with a blade or razor. His barber trims his Mohawk-style haircut with clippers and uses the same instrument to trim Cooper’s beard every two weeks.

Razor bumps can discolor as well as disfigure Black men's faces, affecting their self-image. Cooper’s dislike of shaving is common among Black men who dread razor bumps.

“I never let a razor touch my face,” said Kelvin Johnson, who is 24 and grows a beard until he visits a barber who shaves his beard with hair clippers. “Clippers don't break me out.”

Like Cooper, Johnson also does not like to shave with a blade or a razor.

“I started shaving when I was 16, and razor bumps broke out on my neck," he said, raising his chin so they could be seen.”

Not everyone relies on barbers and their clippers. Richard Lewis, a 49 year-old Chicago hairstylist, said clippers don't provide a tight enough shave.

“It's not baby smooth,” said Lewis, who wears a short, neat beard but uses a blade and sometimes a straight razor to shave after making elaborate preparations to ready his beard for shaving. Lewis points out that Black men must shave following their hair's growth pattern.

Shaving in Black and White

Television commercials portray the manly art of shaving as a refreshing and simple morning exercise that dispatches hair stubble with a few strokes of a razor before the man splashes on Aqua Velva after shave. The man's wife then draws the palm of her hand across his smooth face, exclaiming over its softness. But for most Black men this never happens.

Razor or blade shaving works for White men and other men who have straight hair. But for black men with curly hair, shaving with a razor or a blade is an ordeal that can lead to the face being disfigured by razor bumps and skin discoloration, both of which can affect black men's appearance, self-image and self-esteem.

"Historically, razor bumps remain a significant problem for Black men. Certainly, most Black men have razor bumps, but not all," explained Dr. Charles E. Crutchfield, III, owner of Crutchfield Dermatology, an Eagan, Minn.-based practice that treats African-American men for razor bumps. Dr. Crutchfield is also a clinical professor of dermatology at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

The Journal of the National Medical Association published a study by a Black physicians group in 1974 titled, Pseudofolliculitis barbae in the Military. Pseudofolliculitis barbae, first described in 1956, is the medical term for razor bumps.

Razor bumps are more common and more severe among African-American men, reported the journal article, which was written by Major Alvin M. Alexander, M.D., chief of Dermatology Service at the U.S. Army Medical Center in Okinawa, Japan, and Walter I. Delph, M.D., a physician at Montefiore Hospital in New York City.

There are two causes of razor bumps, explained Dr. Crutchfield.  "One is called extrafollicular penetration and other is called transfollicular penetration.  Because Black men tend to have curly hair, the hair curls back into the skin after shaving, causing inflammation. The inflammation can look like pimples. The hair follicles can also become infected."

Razor bumps can be physically disfiguring, and they can affect Black men’s psychological well-being, Dr. Crutchfield said.

Dr. Crutchfield said he sees patients on a regular basis with razor bumps.

“Their skin is irritated, painful, inflamed and discolored,” he explains. “All of these things together can cause frustration and lower self-esteem."

Johnson, who lives in Evanston, Ill., adds that many Black men are so self-conscious about their razor bumps that they don't apply for jobs because they are concerned about how they will be perceived.

Categories of Razor Bumps

In its study, The Journal of the National Medical Association graded the seriousness of pseudofolliculitis barbae on a four-point scale for the Army, Navy, Air Force and the Marines.

A Grade 0 showed no evidence of razor bumps.

Grade I is designated when ingrown hairs and less than 20 percent papules or solid elevation of the skin are in evidence in a two-millimeter area, which is equivalent to a small dot on a penny. In these cases, the physicians recommended a treatment of vitamin-A acid, which is used to treat acne, and topical steroids, which are used to treat rashes.

Grade II is diagnosed when ingrown hairs and 20 percent or more papules cover an area of two-millimeters or greater diameter on facial skin. The authors recommended that individuals with this condition stop shaving and use vitamin A-acid and topical steroids.

Grade III is characterized by multiple pustules and this is considered a severe condition. The person should stop shaving.

Grade IV is also considered a severe condition, and men are encouraged to stop shaving and use topical or systemic antibiotics. In addition, the physicians recommended opening and draining the razor bumps.

The National Medical Association published its study 39 years ago and some of the recommended treatments may no longer be accepted.

Urging Black men who suffer from razor bumps to stop shaving, however, remains an effective way of combating razor bumps.

“I see patients on a regular basis with razor bumps. Some professions request that I write a letter so police officers, firefighters and military personnel can grow a beard to avoid razor bumps,” Dr. Crutchfield says.

In 2004, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., recognized that razor bumps were a major problem among its Black-male midshipmen. The academy instituted a policy of permitting the midshipmen to stop shaving for specific period of time of not more than 30 days.  After a month, they were required to see a dermatologist. The Naval Academy, however, requires midshipmen to keep their beards and moustaches clean and neatly trimmed.

What If You Don't Want A Beard?

But what if a black man doesn't want a beard or doesn't think he looks good wearing a beard?

There are products like Magic Shave, a depilatory or razorless shaving hair removal cream for black men that prevents razor bumps. Magic Shave is made by Soft Sheen-Carson Inc., a Chicago-based company.

Hair can be removed permanently through electrolysis, which can be expensive.  In addition, laser hair removal is available, but individuals should use one that is attuned to brown skin, warns Dr. Crutchfield.

“The real key to eliminating razor bumps is getting rid of the hair. Once the hair is gone, there will be no more razor bumps,” he says.

Electric Shavers for Black Men

Other methods that either eliminate or reduce razor bumps are Flathead electric shaver, designed specifically for Black men. 

Wahl Clipper Corp., which is based in Sterling, Ill., makes the "Bump-Free Shaver," a corded or cordless shaver for Black men. It was recently named one of best electric razors for Black men.

The shaver has hypoallergenic gold foils, giving users a close or super close shave, said Ben Phillips, Wahl Master Barber.

Wahl claims its patented Dynaflex Cutting System gives bump-free shaves for the head, face and neck. Wahl began targeting African-American men with a shaver for their specific needs in 1989, according to the company's biography.

Wahl is the market leader for shavers for Black men. There is surprisingly little competition in this niche market.

The Eltron Company, a Hollywood, Calif., based business, is testing a prototype of a Flathead shaver. "The Flathead would address the problem of razor bumps and ingrown hairs," said John Parks, president and CEO of Eltron.

Remington ES1000

The Remington ES1000. The company stopped making the product because they said there was not a large market for it, but a lot of Black men had never heard of it. 

Remington discontinued making the ES1000 Bump-Control Ultra Smooth Shaver because company officials claimed there was low demand for it.  “We know it's a pretty big market,” Parks said.

Once Remington announced that it was no longer going to sell the ES1000, Kevie Hendrix, sales manager of Shaving House.com, a St. Louis-based distributor of shaving products, purchased most of Remington's remaining stock of ES1000 shavers. The shavers sold between $50 and $60.

"I doubled the price of each shaver and sold everything in a couple of weeks," said Hendrix, adding that he was responding to demand. EBay recently advertised a refurbished ES 1000 for $120. Shaving House is developing an electric shaver for Black men, Hendrix said.

A major problem facing Wahl and other manufacturers of electric shavers for black men is that they are not well known.

Cooper's barber shaves his beard with Wahl clippers. Until this recent interview, Cooper says he had never heard of the Wahl Bump-Free Shaver. Johnson and Lewis also said they never knew about electric shavers designed specifically for Black men.

“I wish they would advertise,” Cooper adds.

July 7, 2013

Students Deeply Concerned Over Doubled Loan Interest Rate 
By Shayla Mulzac

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Due to Congress's failure to act, the interest rate on the very popular federally subsidized Stafford student loans doubled on July 1 from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, causing millions of students to worry about their future.

“Personally, I feel like the government is telling me that I have to choose either a minimum wage job post high school or agree to cripple debt post-grad,” said Maya Ennis, a senior psychology major at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. “In an economy that has already proven to be hard on recent graduates in terms of finding jobs with a decent salary, it does not seem to make sense to increase the burden. In some ways it feels like students who decided to attend college but who cannot pay the full fee out of pocket are being punished.”

Last year, Congress voted to extend the lower rate on June 29, 2012 for another year. A year after the temporary extension of the interest-rate-relief program, Congress has still not passed comprehensive legislation that permanently addresses the federal student loan rate.

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have vowed to lower the rate before students return to school in the fall. Still, the uncertainty is bothersome to students who are also aware of partisan bickering so intense that a distracted Congress has been unable to end the budget cuts of sequestration. 

In the absence of a decision to reduce the doubled rate, nearly 7 million students will suffer. In a waiting mode, some students are struggling to figure out whether it is beneficial to sign off on student loans for the upcoming fall semester.

“The increase is just too much and it makes me feel like going to school is not worth it. I’m much better off going to a trade school or developing a skill that can generate enough funds in my pocket and then go back when I am financially stable,” said Oneil Jerrick, a sophomore majoring in business marketing at Brooklyn College in New York. “Getting an education will always be in high demand but what’s the point of raising the rate on a loan where we have millions of students graduating each year unable to get a job?”

Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), had planned to introduce legislation this week extending the 3.4 percent rates for an additional two years. This would give Congress time to rethink student loan interest rates as part of the higher education reauthorization bill.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has proposed a new Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act that would set the student loan rate to 0.75 percent for one year. That is the interest rate that the Federal Reserve officers to major banks. The student loan rate is now higher than most loans available from private lenders.

With all the back and forth, students are measuring the impact that they themselves could someday make so that students who come behind them won’t face the same conflicts.

Kianna Taylor, a Howard University senior majoring in early childhood education, said,  “I hope more students can understand how this effects their lives and they will work towards changing this.”